Perhaps the success of director Sofia Coppola in depicting the characters of
The Bling Ring lies in her affluent upbringing.

The movie, to open on Friday, tells the story of a real-life gang of reality-TV-addled teenagers
who, one burgled celebrity residence at a time, became a criminal organization responsible for the
theft of millions of dollars worth of designer dresses, expensive watches and — almost — Paris
Hilton’s dog.

The story seemed a natural fit for Coppola: Few directors of this era have been more at ease
amid the outlandish, brightly colored wilds of youth culture. And the celebrity-obsessed Los
Angeles of
The Bling Ring was a world that Coppola — daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola and a
consummate insider in her own right — knew particularly well.

Coppola, newly returned from the Cannes Film Festival in France — where
The Bling Ring received positive reviews — shrugged off the notion that she has anything
in common with the flashbulb-popping, swag-hoarding vision of Hollywood she depicts in her
film.

“I think people think I grew up around that or something,” she added. “To me, Al Pacino and
Paris Hilton are different — you know what I mean?”

Still,
The Bling Ring — based on a 2010
Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales — is a movie that abounds in rich confluences — some
intended, others inadvertent. Reality and fiction rub until they generate sparks. The characters in
the film hunger for luxury brands, some of which, such as Louis Vuitton or Marc Jacobs, Coppola has
designed or modeled for.

The cast includes Emma Watson as Nicki, an aspiring model and actress who sports an aggressive
Valley-girl accent and who, when caught, blithely expresses a desire to “lead a huge charity
organization.”

Sales recently expanded her original article into a book,
The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the
World, and she also served as the basis for a minor character in the film: a journalist to
whom various characters relate their hopes, dreams or crimes.

Amid all the noise, accusations and counteraccusations is a film that, like Coppola’s efforts in
Marie Antoinette and
Somewhere, casts a deadpan and even euphoric eye on the mores of conspicuous wealth and
those who aspire to it. The film is a riot of beautiful clothes and young women driving around in
oversize luxury vehicles. Coppola’s
louche teenagers occupy a land of sunglasses and Starbucks, vision boards and Uggs.

“I wanted to show a slice of that world,” Coppola said. “But I tried to not be judgmental and
leave it open for the audience to decide how they feel about all that.”

Both Coppola and Sales said that managing the line between the outlaw romance of their story and
the cautionary-tale aspect of it has been tricky.“I get tweets like that,” Sales said — “like ‘I’m
reading your book, and I want to be in
TheBling Ring.’ ”